Isaiah 17

1 This is the burden against Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is no longer a city; it has become a heap of ruins.

The word about Damascus. See, they have made Damascus a town no longer; it has become a waste place.

2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be left to the flocks, which will lie down with no one to fear.

Her towns are unpeopled for ever; there the flocks take their rest in peace, without fear.

3 The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the sovereignty from Damascus. The remnant of Aram will be like the splendor of the Israelites,”

The strong tower has gone from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus: the rest of Aram will come to destruction, and be made like the glory of the children of Israel, says the Lord of armies.

4 “In that day the splendor of Jacob will fade, and the fat of his body will waste away,

And it will be in that day that the glory of Jacob will be made small, and the strength of his body will become feeble.

5 as the reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the ears with his arm, as one gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.

And it will be like a man cutting the growth of his grain, pulling together the heads of the grain with his arm; even as when they get in the grain in the valley of Rephaim.

6 Yet gleanings will remain, like an olive tree that has been beaten— two or three berries atop the tree, four or five on its fruitful branches,”

But it will be like a man shaking an olive-tree, something will still be there, two or three berries on the top of the highest branch, four or five on the outside branches of a fertile tree, says the Lord, the God of Israel.

7 In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

In that day a man's heart will be turned to his Maker, and his eyes to the Holy One of Israel.

8 They will not look to the altars they have fashioned with their hands or to the Asherahs and incense altars they have made with their fingers.

He will not be looking to the altars, the work of his hands, or to the wood pillars or to the sun-images which his fingers have made.

9 In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken thickets and summits, abandoned to the Israelites and to utter desolation.

In that day your towns will be like the waste places of the Hivites and the Amorites which the children of Israel took for a heritage, and they will come to destruction.

10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and failed to remember the Rock of your refuge. Therefore, though you cultivate delightful plots and set out cuttings from exotic vines—

For you have not given honour to the God of your salvation, and have not kept in mind the Rock of your strength; for this cause you made a garden of Adonis, and put in it the vine-cuttings of a strange god;

11 though on the day you plant you make them grow, and on that morning you help your seed sprout— yet the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.

In the day of your planting you were watching its growth, and in the morning your seed was flowering: but its fruit is wasted away in the day of grief and bitter sorrow.

12 Alas, the tumult of many peoples; they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations; they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters.

Ah! the voice of peoples, like the loud sounding of the seas, and the thundering of great nations rushing on like the bursting out of waters!

13 The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.

But he will put a stop to them, and make them go in flight far away, driving them like the waste of the grain on the tops of the mountains before the wind, and like the circling dust before the storm.

14 In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.

In the evening there is fear, and in the morning they are gone. This is the fate of those who take our goods, and the reward of those who violently take our property for themselves.